Jacqueline Hennessy
:quality(82)/news/Hennessy-Jacqueline_-How-to-disappear-completely-scaled.jpg)
Jacqueline Hennessy
For our final instalment of On Stillness, we have chosen a work by Jacqueline Hennessy who graduated from NAS in 2019 with a Masters of Fine Art (Painting). In her ghostly paintings of female figures, Hennessy explores how to give visual form to her lived experience of being in the world. Her painting process involves staining clear primed Belgian linen with thin washes of raw umber and lead white oil paint. Hennessy builds her images up over time in transparent layers, gradually developing fragile and ghostly feminine figures that seemingly emerge as they dissolve into the linen support.
The significance of Hennessy’s work lies in its attempt to create painted self-portraits that surpass the autobiographical and deal instead with phenomenological and conceptual concerns about the mystery of beingness. By setting up a dialogue between painting and photography, Hennessy questions relationships between the two and explores painting’s potential to transcend the descriptive and articulate more complex and enigmatic experiences of being in the world.
Image: Jacqueline Hennessy, How to disappear completely, 2019, oil on linen, 122 x 92 cm, National Art School Collection, acquired through the NAS Collection Fund, 2019 © the artist
Latest News
Wednesday 23 September 2026
:quality(82)/news/eDM-Single-Column-660-px-x-400-px-46.png)
Wednesday 23 September 2026
Please see below for current and forthcoming exhibitions and events featuring our staff and alumni. Oliver Abbott: Guide Alum Oliver Abbott (MFA, 2024) presents Guide at Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney. “Guide continues an ongoing investigation into a synthesised world. I glean fragments of architecture, infrastructure and landscape, rebuild and reconfigure them, and navigate the new space …
Wednesday 02 September 2026
:quality(82)/news/f28ae826-5619-41e1-b0a1-3de6cd01606f.webp)
Wednesday 02 September 2026
Create NSW is currently calling all emerging visual artists in NSW to apply for the 2027 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging) program. The annual NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging) program, delivered in partnership between Artspace and Create NSW, has been a long-standing and successful platform for nurturing NSW’s emerging visual artists. With mentorship and support from Artspace’s curatori…
Monday 31 August 2026
:quality(82)/news/Fiona-Currey-Billyard_The-Procure.jpg)
Monday 31 August 2026
We are delighted to announce the recipients of the prestigious National Art School international residencies for 2027. The British School at Rome Congratulations to Fiona Currey Billyard (NAS MFA 2023), the 2027 recipient of the British School at Rome Residency. Made possible through the generosity of our donors, particularly Jennifer Dowling, this three-month residency offers the opportunity t…